What do you think has changed about living in Thailand over the past year? If you've been here a while, the honest answer is probably everything, and none of it in your favor. The property goalposts keep movingThe core rules haven't technically changed. Foreigners can still own up to 49% of a condo building on a freehold basis. Land ownership is still off the table entirely. What's shifted is everything around the edges. In March 2025, Thailand's Supreme Court struck down the "30+30+30" lease renewal structure that thousands of foreign buyers had relied on to effectively secure long-term use of a property. Renewal promises baked into a lease agreement are no longer enforceable beyond the initial 30 years. People who planned their retirement around that workaround found out the hard way that it was never as solid as it looked. Meanwhile, the nominee company crackdown keeps widening. Nearly 47,000 entities have been flagged across high-risk sectors, with tens of thousands of legal cases opened and raids still making headlines well into 2026. And the reforms that might actually help, raising the foreign ownership quota, extending leases to 99 years, keep getting floated and keep going nowhere. The promise of change is almost worse than no promise at all. Also: Thailand's problem isn't its property law. It's that nobody trusts it to last. The visa rules aren't done changing eitherSince November 2025, immigration has enforced a de facto cap of two visa runs per year, with entry increasingly denied to anyone who can't show a valid reason for more. Visa categories were consolidated from 17 down to seven. The paper TM6 is gone, replaced by a fully digital arrival system now linked to address reporting and the 90-day check-in. And there's more coming. Cabinet approved cutting the visa-free stay from 60 days to 30 for most nationalities back in May 2026. It hasn't taken effect yet, pending publication, but it's approved. It's coming, and of course, we’re all in the dark. The numbers behind the enforcement are not small. Nearly 30,000 people were denied entry in the first five months of 2026 alone. It's policy, and it's being applied. And now the taxman's involved tooSince January 2024, foreign income remitted to Thailand by a tax resident can be taxable, closing the old loophole where you simply waited until the following calendar year to bring money in. That rule is still in place as of mid-2026, despite ongoing talk of a grace period. Thailand also now receives automatic financial data from more than 120 countries, so the old "just don't report it" approach isn't really an option anymore either. Add it up with everything else, and it's another bite out of the annual cost of staying here. And good luck opening a bank accountHere's the one that catches people off guard because it feels so basic. Thai banks have tightened account-opening requirements, particularly for anyone on a tourist or short-term visa. Some expats are now turning to the Thailand Privilege Visa (formerly Elite) largely because it gives them something a bank teller will actually accept as proof of long-term intent. It's a small thing on paper. In practice, it's one more everyday task that used to be simple and now isn't. None of that is yours to fixProperty law, visa policy, tax rules, banking requirements: every one of these gets decided somewhere you have no seat at the table. You can adapt to them, but you can't fix them. There's one part of this list you can actually get ahead of. The one cost you can get ahead ofThailand's private healthcare has a reputation for being affordable, and for routine visits, it holds up. It's the bigger events that gets you. Thai private hospitals routinely ask for a deposit before they'll even treat you, sometimes up to 200,000 baht, unless your insurer has a direct billing arrangement that removes it entirely. A serious motorbike accident alone can run 200,000 baht to 2 million baht, and costs are climbing around 14% a year. Public hospitals are the cheaper fallback some lean on, but Thai law now permits tiered pricing that can charge foreigners up to double what Thai nationals pay, on top of wait times that regularly stretch two to four hours. This is the one variable on this entire list you actually get to control. Cigna Global's direct billing network settles the bill directly with the hospital, so there's no deposit and no reimbursement wait. Depending on your plan, its Health and Wellbeing module and complex case management service can also cover routine checkups and chronic condition support, worth confirming for your tier when you get a quote. Its plans also meet Thailand's O-A and O-X visa insurance minimums (400,000 baht inpatient, 40,000 baht outpatient), so the one insurance requirement tied to your visa is one you can simply satisfy and stop thinking about. Everything else on this list, you're stuck reacting to. This part, you get to decide. And despite all of it, most long-term expats aren't going anywhere. People have found reasons to stay in Thailand through visa overhauls, tax changes, and every other rulebook rewrite along the way. The country keeps getting more complicated. It hasn't stopped being worth it. Get a free quote from Cigna Global today. So, where do you land on all this? Has the last year of changes made you rethink staying, or are you firmly in the "still worth it" camp? What's the one rule you wish Thailand would actually fix? *Sponsored -
Create an account or sign in to comment